Sorting for dummies

livid

Keep in mind this is using JDK 1.3, but even so. Fortunately, this method isn't actually used anymore. Someone later decided it might be easier to just implement a Comparator and use the Collections.sort() facility provided by the Java API. I think that same someone decided to leave the code around as a reminder that things can, in fact, get worse. Much worse.

The real kicker is that this method doesn't really do any sorting - there was another method that sorted each of the lists contained in the resulting hash map. I can only assume that this is yet another case of a contractor getting paid by the line.

public Collection sortStuff()
{

        Collection listA = new java.util.ArrayList();
       Collection listB = new java.util.ArrayList();
       Collection listC = new java.util.ArrayList();

...

        Collection listZ = new java.util.ArrayList();

       Map sortedList = new HashMap();

       Collection list = getCollectionOfStuff();
       Iterator listit = list.iterator();
       while (listit.hasNext())
       {
            ObjectInfo info = (ObjectInfo) listit.next();

           String name = info.getName();

           if (name.length() > 0)
           {
               String startLetter = name.substring(0, 1);
               if ((startLetter.equals("A")) || (startLetter.equals("a")))
               {
                    listA.add(info);
               }
               else if ((startLetter.equals("B")) || (startLetter.equals("b")))
               {
                    listB.add(info);
               }

...

               else if ((startLetter.equals("Z")) || (startLetter.equals("z")))
               {
                    listZ.add(info);
               }
           }
       }

       sortedList.put("ListA", listA);
       sortedList.put("ListB", listB);

...

        sortedList.put("ListZ", listZ);

       setSortedStuff(sortedList);
    }

vt_mruhlin

Well, imagine how much worse this would be if it actually sorted the stuff instead of just grouping them by the first letter....

collection listAA = new List();
Collection listAB = new List();
//....
string startLetter = .....
string secondLetter = ....
string thirdLeter = ....

if(startLetter.equals("A") && secondLetter.equals("A") && thirdLetter.equals("A")....)
...
if(startLetter.equals("A") && secondLetter.equals("A") && thirdLetter.equals("B")........)
...

This routine vaguely resembles a contrived, incomplete and unnecessary implementation of the radix sort algorithm.

AngryUndead

This routine vaguely resembles a contrived, incomplete and unnecessary implementation of the radix sort algorithm.

I concur.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radix_sort